(Reuters) - Apple Inc sold the most number of smartphones globally in the fourth quarter, overtaking Samsung Electronics Co Ltd for the first time since 2011, according to research firm Gartner. Apple sold 74,832 smartphones to end users worldwide, ahead of the 73,032 phones sold by Samsung, according to Gartner's report. The success of big-screen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus drove Apple's sales in its first quarter ended Dec. 27. more...

By Edwin Chan and Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO/BEIJING (Reuters) - Two years after U.S. legislators branded it a national security threat, China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is planning a campaign to win over U.S. consumers, rolling out new mobile phones and wearable devices backed by a marketing effort. China's second-largest smartphone maker, already with more than $40 billion in annual revenue from a wide range of telecom gear and products, is preparing to introduce Americans to several of its smartphones and wearable devices this year, including its youth-oriented "Honor" phone, Huawei officials told Reuters. The company's 2015 U.S. plans, which have not been previously reported, will encompass traditional advertising, online promotion and sports team sponsorships, said Huawei's U.S. spokesman Bill Plummer. more...

By Julia Fioretti and Leila Abboud BRUSSELS/BARCELONA (Reuters) - The European Union is looking to sign agreements with China and Japan and the United States to cooperate on developing the next generation of mobile broadband as it seeks to help its companies catch up in the race to develop such technologies. Europe, once a leader in the 1990s in the second-generation GSM technology standard for mobile phone networks moving into the digital era, has fallen behind the United States, Japan and South Korea in the deployment of the latest 4G standard for mobile broadband services. more...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's antitrust chief has met Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt as she seeks to resolve a four-year investigation into complaints that the Internet search giant abuses its dominance. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager met Schmidt on Monday, her spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said in an email. In recent weeks Vestager has met more than a dozen Google complainants, including executives from Microsoft, German publisher Axel Springer, mapping companies and price comparison sites to get feedback on the case. ... more...